One Entrepreneur On Marketing: Tony Hartl
Jun 29 in Smart Growth 
This is part of a series called "The Entrepreneurs on Marketing." This interview is with Tony Hartl.
Regarding your approach to marketing, push or pull?
I prefer push marketing. As a part of the retail industry, we tried to broaden the reach of our store with billboards and radio and television advertising. Obviously, with this approach you are going to hit a lot of people who may not be interested, but it’s still a way to expand your influence and put your name out there to entice new customers.
What do you think about branding?
I think branding is what comes to mind when you think about a company. It’s similar to what goes through your mind when you think about a person. You consider behavior, personality, and style. It’s the same thing for a brand. You are creating a personality for your company, and how you design that will determine what kind of audience you attract and how they will identify with you.
How important is your personality to your brand?
When you are the front person for the brand, it’s important to show that how you think and behave is consistent with the brand. For my company, our brand really was an extension of my personality and belief system. Many of our policies and rules were taken right out of my own life. Whether a company likes it or not, they have a brand and therefore they have a personality. It’s important to be focused on fine-tuning the brand to make sure it’s consistent and appeals to your core audience.
What are your top three ways to promote your business?
1. Through employees—When your employees believe in what they are doing, they become evangelists for the brand.
2. Through customers—In our industry, 40 percent of new guests came through member referrals. It was important to give our customers easy ways to tell their friends how to become members. We did this through having interesting promotions and also establishing a refer a friend program that gave the member an incentive to participate.
3. Through Affiliate Programs—We aligned ourselves with very hip and cool brands that were much larger than us to enhance our credibility in the marketplace. We were fortunate to have partnerships with all three major sports team in Dallas: The Cowboys, The Mavericks, and The Stars. Having the trifecta of sports franchises working together with us instantly increased our standing in the community.
What have been your keys to success when it comes to growing your online audience?
We frequently updated content on our website to keep it fresh and exciting. We also offered interesting and valuable content to our online audience through WIN marketing—What’s Important Now. We provided helpful, seasonal tips to maximize the customer’s experience in our store. We wanted to give them something valuable without charging for it.
Any final thoughts on marketing a business?
When people ask me why I was so successful in business, I say it’s because of marketing. I put most of my energy and focus on getting the word out about my brand. It’s impossible to be successful if no one knows who you are. People think, “If you build it, they will come.” I haven’t found that to be true. You have to tell people why you are there and how you are relevant to keep your business thriving.
Tony Hartl is the founder and former CEO of Planet Tan, the country’s premier chain of indoor tanning salons. He currently sits on the board of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and is a guest lecturer at The Caruth Institute of Entrepreneurship at Southern Methodist University’s Cox Business School. Hartl will release his first book, Selling Sunshine: 75 Tools, Tips, and Tactics for Becoming a Wildly Successful Entrepreneur in January 2011. You can follow Tony on Facebook, Twitter, and his website.
Reader Comments (1)
Brand is so important, I agree, that people who are the one of the bests should be the ones working for the company on it. Without good branding your company profile will not be as good as it should be.
Sylvia Jaumann
Your Own Bookkeeping Business